Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community. Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs". I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman. Big deal.

Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community. Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs". I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman. Big deal.

Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community. Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs". I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman. Big deal.

It doesn't make sense that Jesus would be racist. Therefore, it must be...

Certainly it makes sense. The Jews are the Chosen People and Jesus was sent to them, was one of them.

Instead of trying to fit Christ to the Politically Correct Procrustean Bed of American Liberalism, try to imagine how a Greek in Corinth or Antioch would have heard the story. This hypothetical Greek didn't know about racism, after all. Racism is a post Darwinian concept.

Whenever anything terrible happens, or rather is done, in the world, “we” are somehow to blame for it, not the merely apparent perpetrators. The root cause is always in us, the us in question being our biological, cultural, or political ancestors, but never me in particular. We are responsible, but I am not. We have done something to make them behave badly, and if it were not for us the world would be a peaceful, happy place. And to be ultimately responsible for all the evil in the world is at least flattering to one’s sense of self-importance, the defense of which motivates an important part of many people’s intellectual activity.

Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community. Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs". I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman. Big deal.

It doesn't make sense that Jesus would be racist. Therefore, it must be...

Quite the contrary. Facticity is always evidentiary.

"Dog" is the Jewish term of contempt for a non-Jew, whether in Hebrew (kalbah:female dog), Aramaic (oblk) or contemporary Yiddish (hint).

After all, if one thinks that one's ethnic group is "God's Chosen People", then all others must perforce be "Unchosen", outside God's promised Kingdom, and therefore contemptable. Jesus was a product of His time, place and culture; otherwise He wouldn't have been human, and we'd all be Docetists. Nicht wahr ?

Yes, Jesus used a racist slur. Clearly, without a doubt. But,and this is the moral of this story, he also clearly heard the response of the woman. He clearly listened and responded to her, in compassion and in a lesson learned. That's what this story tells us. Clearly Jesus was raised in a culture that despised anyone who was not born into it. Clearly, he expressed that in this story, but he had his mind opened and responded by breaking the pattern of this life time of learning. I wonder if we, any of us, could be so quick to do the same?

As an African-American, I would like to shed some light on this. The n-word is simply a corruption of the word,"Negro". Most of the slaves were Negroes from Africa. Originally, there was nothing wrong with the use of the word, it was just a lazy mispronunciation. It became more sinsiter, however, when slavery was ended and mistreatment of the former slaves began. By the time I was born, in 1935, the word had taken on the connotations that we now have for it.

Likewise, we cannot judge how the term, "dog" was used at the time Jesus used it. Was it acceptable at the time? Should the woman have been offended? We do not know, but I certainly do not think it is appropriate to call him a racist.

Irrespective of time, place, language and culture, it is exceedingly difficult to understand how calling a person a "dog" is a nice and endearing term. Presumably, Jesus spoke to the woman in Aramaic, the prevalent language of the region, and used the female form of the term OBLK, i.e. "bitch". As previously explained, "dog" and it's Hebrew, Aramaic, and Yiddish equivalents, is an outrightly contemptuous term in Jewish culture.

Where did we ever get the idea that Jesus was Mr.Nice 24-7-52? Let's bear in mind that Jesus' family thought He was mentally disturbed and tried to take Him home. Mk.3:21.